


When There's Someone By My Side to Sing Along

by kultiras



Category: A-Babies Vs. X-Babies, Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, And I Mean That Literally, Best Friends, Bucky Bear needs a hug, Childhood Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Kid Fic, SO MUCH FLUFF, Yuletide 2014, stuffed animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-02 09:49:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2808110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kultiras/pseuds/kultiras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Steve brings Bucky Bear to school, Bucky doesn't know what to expect. Surely it can't be as bad as the other Plushie Commandos warned him it would be…</p><p>Even though Bucky Bear hoped that he'd make a new friend, he never could have imagined that he'd end the day with three new best friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When There's Someone By My Side to Sing Along

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amy/gifts).



> Amy, [Just Close Your Eyes and Make Believe](http://archiveofourown.org/works/728392) is one of my absolute favorite A-Babies vs. X-Babies fics, and I have reread it so many times. I really hope that you like this story—I blended some of your prompts to come up with this story, and I had a lot of fun writing it.

“Steve? Come downstairs and eat your breakfast, or you’ll be late for school!”

“Coming, Mommy! I just need to get Bucky Bear first,” Steve called back in response.

“Eat your breakfast first, honey, I promise we won’t leave without taking Bucky Bear with us.”

“Okay!” Steve said, grinning as he dashed off towards the promise of breakfast. He paused in the doorway and looked back at his bears. “Don’t worry, Bucky Bear,” he said, “You’re still going to get to come to school with me today. You can officially meet my friends, the other Avengers, and their best friends too! I don’t think any of them are bringing bears, but I’m sure you’ll make some new friends!” Anything else he planned on saying was cut off when his mom called for him again.

“Steve!”

“Sorry, Mommy! I’m coming now, I promise!” Steve hurried downstairs as quickly as his little legs would take him. 

Behind him, in his room, his toys waited cautiously until they were sure that he wasn’t coming back right away. Bucky Bear grinned at his fellow Plushie Commandos as they all began to stir.

“Steve’s taking me to school with him! I wonder what it’s like for toys? Steve always has stories about his day when he comes back from there, but it probably won’t be the same for me,” he said to the other bears. “Think I might make a new friend over there? It’d be nice to have someone to talk to during naptime.”

General Bear cleared his throat and placed a paw on Bucky’s shoulder. “Son, I think you need to calm down. Don’t be excited about this, be careful about it. You don’t know what could happen once you leave this house. He's still young, Bucky, and Steve may not notice if anything happens to you.”

“But Steve loves me,” Bucky Bear replied softly.

“Sure,” Private Bear agreed, “He loves you, but he’s still a kid. And kids aren’t always careful with their toys.”

“Yeah, after all, you were stolen by that Summers boy, Bucky,” Sergeant Bear chimed in, joining the others around Bucky Bear. “Steve couldn’t protect you from what happened. He got you back safe and sound, but anything could have happened to you while the X-Kids held you hostage. Just promise us you’ll be careful, Bucky Bear.”

“We don't mean to frighten you,” General Bear said gently, “We just want you to come back in one piece. You’re one of us, Bucky Bear. And that means something.”

“Yes, Sir,” Bucky agreed. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Any further words were cut off as the toy dinosaurs announced that they could hear Steve coming back up the stairs. The toys resumed their positions in the nick of name, falling back into stillness before Steve re-entered his room. As he sat silently, listening to Steve get ready for school, Bucky considered the fact that he was now far less excited about going to school with Steve. Surely it wouldn’t be as bad as the Plushie Commandos suggested it would be. After all, Steve was even more excited as he picked up Bucky Bear.

“Are you ready for an adventure, Bucky Bear?” Steve asked, already hurrying back down the stairs with his precious bear in his arms. "You're going to have so much fun today! And I promise I won't let Scottie or any of his mean friends near you. I'll keep you safe, Bucky Bear." Bucky was thankful in that moment that he didn’t need to reply to Steve; he no longer knew how he felt about going with Steve to school.

~*~*~

A couple of minutes after the teacher had followed the kids out the door, locking it behind her, the old bear near the teacher’s desk called out, “All clear, everyone! They’re gone!”

The toys glanced around carefully before they began to move about. While the kids were outside for lunchtime and recess, the toys were also able to enjoy the free time. Some of the toys wandered about cleaning up the room, rounding up stray crayons and rescuing other toys that had been wedged into hidden spaces.

Bucky Bear didn’t join any of them though. He felt too scared to move, too shy to really even look at any of the others until he felt something nudge him in his side. Bucky Bear turned and found a somewhat worn and scraggly looking dog staring back at him. The dog had one good eye—the other was a bit cracked and scratched up, but it didn’t seem to phase him one bit. He just stood next to Bucky and grinned at him.

Without waiting for Bucky to adjust to his presence, the dog started talking. “You must be Bucky Bear, Cap’s friend! I’m Lucky. I live with Clint and he hasn’t stopped talking about the Avengers’ rescue mission. I hope you’re feeling okay after all of that. Not that I think you’d be feeling bad, but I heard it was crazy and epic and—“

“Take it easy, Pizza Dog. I think you’re overwhelming the new guy,” another voice interrupted.

Bucky turned to his other side and found a bird looking back at him levelly. “Hi,” the bird said, introducing himself, “I’m Redwing.”

“Nice to meet you both, and yeah, I’m Bucky Bear,” Bucky said, giving them an awkward wave. “I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I know who Clint is,” he told Lucky.

“Cap’s never mentioned Hawkeye before?” Lucky asked in shock. “But they’re such good friends!”

“Oh, _Hawkeye_! Yeah, Steve’s mentioned him. Plus I remember seeing him the other night. He helped Steve rescue me from that meanie, Scottie Summers!”

“Exactly!” Lucky said, happily. “And Clint was more than happy to help Cap. He doesn’t like it when mean people get away with bad things, and taking you away from Cap was really, really bad.”

“Sam—he’s my best friend, like Cap’s yours—he was happy to help Cap rescue you too. He’s Falcon. Not sure if you met him or not,” Redwing added. “He lost me once. Thought I was gone forever actually. But he refused to stop searching for me, and his friends—and my friends—they helped find me. I’d fallen from somewhere high up, and I was pretty messed up for a while.” Looking up at Bucky Bear, Redwing hastily added, “But I’m okay now, I swear. How are you holding up? What happened with the X-Babies sounded scary.”

“I’m okay,” Bucky Bear replied. “Well…mostly okay. I didn’t get hurt or anything. A little banged up, but nothing beyond that. I just…it…”

“What?” Lucky asked.

“No one but Steve seemed to care about what I went through. The other Bears just seem to expect that we’ll all be treated badly, that eventually each of us will get hurt or left behind,” Bucky said, frowning unhappily.

“It can happen that way,” a new voice said, “They’re not wrong in that, though I don’t think it’ll ever apply to you, Mishka.”

“Mishka?” Bucky Bear asked as he looked at the newcomer.

“Liho likes names,” Redwing replied. “She’ll come up with something else if you don’t like this one though.”

“I don’t mind it, as long as it’s a nice nickname,” Bucky said, smiling at the cat staring back at him.

“It’s a nice one, I promise. It’s an appropriate one too,” she assured him. “It means Little Bear. I’m Natasha’s friend. You may know her better as Black Widow.”

“Oh wow!” Bucky exclaimed, “Steve talks about Natasha, and I remember seeing her fight—she’s amazing!”

Liho finally cracked a smile upon hearing him say that. “I couldn’t agree more.”

The four of them stood there in silence for a while, watching the chaos as some of the toys played a strange game that appeared to be part capture-the-flag, part freeze tag, and part hopscotch.

Bucky surprised himself by being the one to finally break the silence. “Liho, what did you mean when you said that the other Bears could be right?”

Liho opened her mouth, about to reply, when Lucky shifted next to her. She glanced at him and tilted her head in question. Lucky merely ducked his head in reply, and she nodded in agreement.

“I was in a bad home before I met Clint,” Lucky said quietly. “The boys…they hurt me. They didn’t love or care about me. They left me outside near the trash and Clint rescued me. I was a mess, I was broken, but he still saved me.”

“Lucky…” Bucky Bear began to speak.

“No, it’s okay now. Because them throwing me away was the best thing that happened to me, Bucky. Because thanks to that? I found Clint. I found a home, I found someone who likes me, someone who loves me, someone who trusts me. He kept my former owners from stealing me back once he fixed me up. It’s all okay, but that’s what Liho means. Everyone isn’t as lucky as me, and once you know that, you can’t forget it.”

“It’s different for all of us, Bucky,” Liho added. “No one wanted me before Natasha. I lived at a toy store, where kids could come and play with us and leave us behind when it was time to leave. I thought I was only good for five minutes of playtime, and then I met Natasha. You know, she wanted to bring me home so badly, she’d visit me over and over, but wouldn’t bring me home. It took me ages to realize that she was scared of having me as a friend.”

“What happened to change her mind?” Bucky asked.

“I’m cute and persistent,” Liho replied, shaking off the seriousness that had settled over their group. “But enough about sad stuff. Don’t worry about Steve, Bucky. He loves you. You never have to doubt that.”

“The other Bears don’t want you to get hurt,” Redwing added, “But you know Steve. He won’t let anyone hurt you.”

The conversation came to an abrupt end as the old teddy bear announced, “Places everyone! They’ll be back soon.”

“It was great talking to you, Bucky,” Lucky said as he walked back to the spot where Clint had left him. “If you’re near us during naptime, we should figure out a way to keep talking.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Bucky said with a smile, nodding in acknowledgment as Liho and Redwing wandered back to their places too.

Bucky was barely in place for a few seconds before the door opened and the kids came flooding in.

“Bucky Bear, didja have fun while we were playing outside?” Steve asked, picking up the bear and giving him a tight hug.

Bucky glanced around the room from his vantage point in Steve’s arms. _I did have fun. I think I’m really going to like it here_ , he thought to himself. He smiled to himself as he looked over at his newfound friends, and found Lucky, Liho, and Redwing looking happily back at him. _I made some new friends. Today’s a good day._

He settled down next to Steve as the class got ready for naptime. His mind was already planning ahead for the next day that he could come to school with Steve.

**Author's Note:**

> Story title from ["Life's a Happy Song"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9_zKm2Ewaw) from The Muppets.
> 
> The old bear in the story is based on Balthazar from Jim Henson's Secret Life of Toys.
> 
> So many thanks to M for reading through this story for me. 
> 
> Happy Yuletide!


End file.
